Beneficio in Santa Maria

Les had a great meeting with the farmers this week. They have created a contract for the land that the beneficio (wet mill) will be constructed on. Because of the demand during picking season, construction will not start this season. Things move quite slow here in Guatemala, but it looks like construction might start in April! This is great news!

Just yesterday Julio and his nephew received and processed more than 18 Quintales of coffee cherries from various farmers within the coop. That's a lot of coffee cherries to process on his small depulpper. Therefore the idea of having a beneficio with a larger depulper and drying patio is a great idea for efficiency, and it will allow for more of the farmers to get more involved in the processing of their own coffee.

This is a video of the land that will have the beneficio on it...

La Armonia Hermosa coffee farm visit

Les and Jamie are off next Monday to Guatemala to work with the coffee farmers of our delicious La Armonia Hermosa coffee. Keep up with the story of the project at their website.

During this trip the goal is to start construction on a cistern that is needed for constructing the wet mill. Creating a wet mill will let the farmers to process their own coffee which gives them more control over the quality, and it will also employ the farmers which will allow more money to stay within their community instead of the larger beneficios (processing plants). John will be joining them at the end of January where we will help pick the coffee berries. Everyone is excited about the trip and will take many pictures!

*The picture is of the wet mill at Azotea where they get their coffee processed currently.